Violet recaps Season 1 Episode 12 of The Blacklist, titled The Alchemist, where Reddington gives Keen the next name on the Blacklist: The Alchemist, who relies on science to transform one person into another. Following the recap, Violet shares her thoughts on the episode.
Episode Recap of The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 12: The Alchemist
- The next person on the Blacklist is the Alchemist, who murders the innocent to protect the guilty, and relies on science to transform one person into another. Two people awaken on a plane, confused as to how they got there. The plane crashes, thanks to the Alchemist. The two are identified as Peter and Catherine Madrczyk, Serbian mob turned informants.
- Reddington has a team go through bags of shredded classified documents and put them together. Keen meets with Reddington in a temple, where he informs her that Peter Madrczyk is still alive, and the Alchemist used his forensic background to make it look like he was dead. Peter considered hiring Reddington to help him disappear, so Reddington knows where he was headed.
- Keen, Ressler, and Malik apprehend Peter in Budapest. When Keen returns home, Tom is there and tells her he didn’t go to his interview. He reminds her that the baby they are going to adopt is due in 6 weeks, and that his co-worker is throwing them a baby shower at their house. The FBI identifies the female victim and tracks her to a dating website. Catherine comes to the Alchemist upset, and he kills her.
- The Alchemist poses as Peter’s lawyer, and kills him. The FBI gets a picture of the Alchemist from the dating site too late. They later identify him as Eric Trettel, and Keen visits his wife and daughter, who he left 6 years ago, and want nothing to do with him.
- The FBI finds Catherine’s body in a burned car, and find a serial number for lab equipment. The Alchemist chooses his next victim and pretends to hold a casting call. A woman with the alias of Jolene, who is a substitute teacher at Tom’s school, has a file on Tom, and goes to the baby shower, during which Tom and Lizzie get in a fight over her not taking maternity leave. After Lizzie gets called away, Jolene flirts with Tom.
- The FBI tracks the whereabouts of the Alchemist and his family using the signal from the daughter’s insulin pump. The Alchemist pulls his gun on the convenience store clerk when his daughter sees her picture on TV. A customer tries to intervene with his own gun, but the Alchemist shoots him first, and his daughter is shot in the crossfire.
- The police surround the store. While Keen approaches the store to try to talk to the Alchemist, his wife shoots him in the back, then the sniper shoots him dead. Keen calls Tom to tell him she’ll be late for their date. Aram uncovers the list of people the Alchemist helped disappear, and Keen gives Reddington the list.
- Ressler goes to dinner with Audrey, where he finds out she put her engagement on hold because she can’t stop thinking about him. Tom decides to go to the art show with Jolene. Lizzie returns home to an empty house, and Tom won’t answer his phone. Reddington pays a visit to Malik.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 12 of The Blacklist: The Alchemist
Interesting episode and concept, though the drawback to having these one off episodes where we have one villain each time means that we’re sort of limited in how much we get to explore each serial killer. I kind of would have liked to see the Alchemist and his work in action a little more than just this episode. Though I suppose that is the girl in me that likes to see makeovers.
Anyway, so it seems that the whole point of this episode was so that Reddington could get the list of people that The Alchemist helped disappear. The “previously on” segment reminded us of Reddington’s search for a young woman in the ViCAP system, and then just before he meets with Keen this episode, we see him looking at the obituary of a 28 year old woman named Lucy Brooks, who appears to be the same woman. So basically, he wants to know if she is really dead or if the Alchemist helped her disappear. We don’t get to see the names on the list, so we don’t know if her name was on it or not. If you paid attention when Reddington looked her up on ViCAP, her birthday is July 5, 1983, which would make her 30, not 28. Was this an error on the part of the show, or is this an old obituary? And just who exactly is Lucy Brooks anyway? Red’s daughter? Maybe Reddington was telling the truth when he told Lizzie he was not her father. Or maybe he has two daughters, and Lucy is Lizzie’s sister.
We also find out that Malik is the mole, which is ironic considering that she was the first person that was cleared as being the mole last episode. Or maybe she’s not really the mole and is being framed, like Aram was. Of course, one would argue, if that were true then why would she freely admit to being the mole when confronted by Red? Well, maybe she has discovered that someone is trying to frame her. The scenes from the next episode make it sound like the hunt is still on for the mole, which would suggest that Malik is in fact not the mole.
Finally, we have the Tom and Lizzie storyline. Honestly, I didn’t realize that they were still adopting the baby, what with all the problems they’ve had going on, so this baby shower and reminder of the baby coming in 6 weeks seemed to come out of nowhere. So now we have Jolene, who has been hired to spy on Tom, and apparently lure him into having an affair with her? Who hired her? Reddington, to try to prove to Lizzie that he’s a bad guy after all? Or someone else? If someone else, why?
I think I said this last week, but although I had my reservations at first, The Blacklist has definitely won me over in becoming invested in the show!
Scenes from The Blacklist, Season 1 Episode 13: The Cyprus Agency
Here are scenes from the next episode of The Blacklist, titled The Cyprus Agency:
What did you think of Season 1 Episode 12 of The Blacklist, titled The Alchemist? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
